Description: Delicate annual herbs with a basal rosette.
Leaves sessile, scarcely fused in pairs.
Inflorescence a thyrse, erect, little-branched, dichasia often reduced to single flowers. Flowers mostly 4-merous. Calyx tube longer than the lobes. Corolla tubular. Stamens 4, filaments fused to the corolla tube for their whole length; anthers straight. Ovary of 2 carpels, 1-locular.
Capsule enclosed in the persistent calyx, splitting only at apex.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 2 species, 1 species Europe, Mediterranean & Asia Minor, 1 species America. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), N.S.W., Vic., Tas.
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Stem leaves linear to narrow-lanceolate; calyx tubular, lobes distinct, more than 1 mm long | Cicendia filiformis |
| Stem leaves ovate or rarely lanceolate; calyx obpyramidal, lobes minute, c. 0.5 mm long | Cicendia quadrangularis |
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